MARFLUX Data on Biogeomchemical Fluxes (1990-1993)

Eastern Mediterranean, western approach to Gibraltar and to the English Channel

Observations

Parameters

Mineralogical composition; Sediment grain size parameters; Sediment accumulation rate; Inorganic chemical composition of sediment or rocks; Redox potential in sediment; Nutrient fluxes between the bed and the water column; Metal fluxes between the bed and the water column; Other fluxes between the bed and the water column; Sediment water content, porosity and surface area; Geological sample density

The MARFLUX project, which began on 01 September 1990, was enlarged to become the PALAEOFLUX project after 01 September 1993. It consists of partners from eight EC countries. Its work is concentrated on the study of interactions between the ocean and its sediments with particular emphasis on the management of biogeochemical fluxes. Analyses have been made on a series of piston cores, box cores and multiple cores. Where appropriate, stratigraphic analyses have been applied to produce a time/accumulation curve. The integration of this information permits flux- time data to be derived. For certain cores, time information has also been derived from natural radionuclide data. No. Ship Dates Ports 1. RV Marion Dufresne (FR) 20 Jun to 24 Jul 1991 Marseilles - Cyprus 2. RV Tyro (NL) 03 Oct to 30 Oct 1991 Texel - Sicily 3. RRS Charles Darwin (UK) 02 Oct to 25 Oct 1991 Barry - Newport 4. RV Sonne (DE) 26 Nov to 12 Dec 1993 Bremerhaven - Funchal 5. RV Tyro (NL) 09 Mar to 26 Mar 1993 Djibouti - Gibraltar At present, data are quality controlled by the originator, who holds procedural information. Data are in tabular format. Spatial resolution: Core areas are typically separated by 100-200 nautical miles; vertical sampling resolution is typically 1cm to 10cm. Temporal resolution 0 - 1.1 million years before present. It is anticipated that information relevant to climate change will be derived from these data. Typical core length is about 0.6m. The project coordinator acts as a contact point for the project. Information is held on the specific data generated by participants. At the present time this data is held in hard copy form, though a machine readable form will be produced before 1995. Partners in the project include IOS Deacon Laboratory, UK; National Centre for Marine Research, Greece; Laboratoire de Radioecologie Marine, France;, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy; Universite de Liege, Belgium; Feie Universitat Berlin, Germany; Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht; the Netherlands; Institut Nacional de Investigacao das Pescas, Portugal and Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, France.